Vehicles, such as unmanned vehicles or unmanned utility vehicle (UUV) or other types of vehicles, are often used to perform functions or missions that are too dangerous or expensive for manned vehicles. Such vehicles may be rapidly deployed using aircraft, but relocating these aircraft to the area of interest is expensive. Still other conventional submersible vessel and unmanned aerial vehicles, such as the one disclosed in US patent application publication no. US 2011/0226174, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety, discloses a “flying submarine 100” that includes features of underwater buoyancy, gliding, and/or conventional propeller driven propulsion, re-deployable wings for multi-mode operation; chord-wise wing fold which doubles a control surface, hydro-spike for water entry; means of re-launching from the water; modular nose payload and other features.
Furthermore, requirements for missions and minimizing costs includes identifying commonality among one or more UUV functions are significant considerations for any IAN program. For example, commonality may involve external interfaces, such as one or more platform interfaces, including handling equipment, communications links, as well as sharing vehicle components, one or more pieces of equipment, and other assets including one or more cargo or cabin features. Additionally, many unmanned vehicles are built for nominal performance in one mission requirement such as Man-portable, light weight vehicle, heavy weight vehicle, and large class but may be significantly limited when it comes to other mission requirements not specifically designed for.
A vehicle, such as an unmanned vehicle or other type of vehicle, is needed to overcome one or more of the issues, for example, modularity and multi-function capability of one or more of the existing vehicles or methods of their deployment.